Jedi Academy

Eir had walked back from the Sith Temple in a funk. She had a lot of questions, and very few answers. The petite Jedi-to-be was rummaging around in her disorganised rucksack for something to eat, and wasn't paying close attention to where she was going as she approached the camp where they'd spent the night.

Another one was walking and not paying too close attention. These snacks that the green jedi master had given him were delicious and were occupying his mind from his usual watchfulness, before colliding with something tiny and white-haired. Not that it had any chance of knocking him down, and he gave a puzzled look to the trainee as he showed the rest of the cookie in his mouth.

Eir rebounded off the pureblood's frame and looked up, "sorry," the word was out of her mouth before she even processed who it was she had run into, "oh, you're..." she dug around in her memory, she'd heard his name back at the meet and greet, "Kerren." This close to the camp, he must be the defector she'd heard about. Fishing out an energy bar, Eir slung her pack into place once more. "Sorry," she added, more sincerely this time.

"It seems you have an unfair advantage," he didn't say 'kid', but it sounded like he was about to say it. "You know who I am."

"Oh, right, Eir," she shifted her lunch to the other hand and stuck her right hand out in greeting.

He gave the tiny hand a sceptical look for a few moments before taking it. His own hand was calloused and rough, but he didn't squeeze hers. Mayhaps of fear that he'd be accused of crushing some tiny Jedi girl's hand on his first day.

And here I thought Lord Tenebrous was small.

"Are you one of the Jedi students as well? You seem awfully young and small..."

Eir frowned up at the sheer edifice that was the pureblood, not quite pouting, "yes, yes, and yes, is that a problem?"

He gave a shrug. "The smallest ones tend to die early during the trials on Korriban. I guess it is different for Jedi... you're not locked in fierce competition with your fellow students, it seems."

The girl pulled herself up straighter, she'd lift her chin, too, if she wasn't already looking up at Kerren, "don't underestimate me." The thought of apprentices dying in their trials left a bad taste in Eir's mouth, the wasted potential of snuffing out a life so early.

His eyes narrowed in return. "I didn't say that. Are you looking to start something?" he tensed, ready to stand his ground already.

Eir dropped her head to one side, initially confused, "oh," understanding dawned. Shaking her head, "no, I'm sorry. We aren't... like that," she tired to explain.

The Pureblood looked puzzled at first, and then relaxed slightly. "Like... that?"

"Like, that wasn't a challenge or a warning or nothing," she shrugged as she spoke, "but we do shit-stir each other occasionally, and it's usually harmless." Eir was worried about a friendly ribbing ending in blows. "You're not in competition here, with us." After her experiences with Destrus, however, she remained suspicious of the defector, she just kept those suspicions under wraps. The Masters seem to trust him, I wonder what Corvin makes of this.

"Hmmm..." he seemed sceptical of her words so far. "How do determine who are the top students at the end of all this, if you're not in competition with eachother?"

"Uh," Eir blinked, "we don't?" She wrinkled her nose in confusion, "I mean, it doesn't matter," she elaborated. "If we're ready to advance our training, we are assigned a Master to learn from, and if we are not, then a more suitable role in society is found for us." Preempting what she thought the pureblood's next question would be, "the Master we train under, if that is our path, is determined by a lot of factors, 'being the best' isn't one of those factors."

"How very different," he murmured thoughtfully. It didn't really make sense to him at the moment why it was like that. "We have very little say in who our master will be. Some manage to make petitions to be chosen by a specific master, but most of the time a lord will claim the apprentice they want. That their pick is also a top student is of course a prestige."

“Weird,” she’d never thought about it like that, and she wondered if the Jedi Masters secretly compared notes on their padawans to see who was the better teacher. “Just because a trainee is good, doesn’t mean they’d make a good padawan, though. Like, my skills are probably pretty different from your skills. I could probably learn a lot from someone like Knight Farissa, but I could probably learn even more from someone like Knight Corvin.”

"I do imagine we have a very different set of skills," he said with a firm nod as he looked down at the tiny girl. "Like... you're some healer or mystic of sorts?" She seemed way too tiny to be a fighter.

Eir shook her head, "nah, I'm not really specialised in anything, yet. I know a bit of healing, I know a bit of lore, but I'm no slouch with the lightsaber either." Brains and lightsabering were her strong points, but it felt would have felt weird saying that.

"Of course," he murmured. "The Jedi are warriors, so I suppose it is expected for you all to master the lightsaber too." At least, he guessed that made sense, but he didn't really expect much from someone like her when it came to a fight.